My Little Pony: My Little Pony The Martian

AMICITAS Mission Three – Mission Day 35

ARES 3 solar day 38

"So..." Dragonfly asked, "What did he say?"

Starlight Glimmer tried her best not to show her inner disappointment as she walked toward the other team members. Their host, Mark, was obviously sitting in front of the workbench deep in thought at this time, and from time to time he would turn around and glare at them - in fact, he would stare at the stars. "He's still very disappointed in me." She looked very downcast.

"I originally wanted to remind you." Ding Ting said.

"Almost the entire battery was used by me to discuss those perchlorates," Starlight ignored the bug and continued, "He still doesn't understand why I didn't understand the properties of perchlorates before. I just can't explain it clearly with my translation skills." She paused for a moment to calm down, then continued, "So this is why, except for me, all of you need to try to learn his language, isn't it? ?!”

"Why don't you know it?" Dragonfly asked, "I know! Berry knows it too! Shouldn't this be common sense! We have used that thing to build countless solid rocket boosters!"

"So we have never produced this thing ourselves, we have all used it from you." Starlight replied, "Twilight and I are always busy researching magic boosters and have never touched chemical energy. Rockets. We never need to understand these alchemy knowledge!"

"This is chemistry." Dragonfly corrected.

Starlight paused and sighed, but ultimately ignored the changeling. "Of course Twilight may know. She knows everything. After all, she was selected into the eldest princess's academy for gifted unicorns! I can be considered an expert at best, not a generalist! I know magic now because When I was a kid, I was always trying to make big news! The only chemistry knowledge I understood was what I occasionally read while reading those obscure magic-related books!"

"Calm down," Berry put a hoof on Starlight's shoulder, "We are not blaming you. And I believe Mark will forgive you soon." Berry rubbed her shoulder again. shoulder as a gesture of comfort, and then said, "So what do we do next?"

"He hasn't figured out a way yet," Starlight said. "He says none of the tools he has can be used to safely handle those things."

"Yes." Tingting snatched the words, "When we process it over there, we don't use pure chemicals - at most, they are only about 70% concentration. Even so, until it is mixed with fuel, You still have to use inert metal containers. And the production environment must be absolutely dry." Changeling said and laughed, "But it's quite easy to do it in Appleloosana."

"What will you do if you spill it?" Starlight asked.

"If it just spills a little, just dilute it and wash it away." Ting Ting said, "But you have to use a water hose and stand far away. If it gets wet, it may catch fire."

"Why sometimes?" Feihuo asked.

"Yes, many accidents only happen 'sometimes'. After all, there are too many uncertainties in this kind of thing." Tingting replied, "Berryberry, I still remember that one time that thing spilled a whole bucket. Did it catch fire after shoveling it with a shovel?"

Berry nodded. "It happened once. After all, we can't afford it if it happens again. But even so, there are still many changelings busy trying to die. What a bunch of idiots."

"To make a long story short," Tingting continued, "Under normal circumstances, as long as you don't move it, that thing is quite stable. Of course, this refers to normal circumstances. Sometimes even if you just make a face on it, it will kill you. Explode into the sky. But there are certain substances that are almost guaranteed to cause trouble—Goddard showed us in the lab.”

"What kind is it?" Starlight asked.

"Including reactive metal debris," Dragonfly said, "especially magnesium, titanium, aluminum, etc. Also includes almost any flammable oil or plastic. Does not include body tissue, but direct contact for too long can cause chemical burns .And, if it reaches a certain temperature, it will spontaneously ignite."

Starlight's jaw almost dropped. "Is this the kind of thing you usually use?" she asked, "and you even sell the product to us after it's finished?"

"Didn't we mention many times before that we actually flew into space in a can in a can on top of a pile of explosives?" Berry said coldly, "This is no joke."

"The good news is that currently the so-called 'sometimes' should be changed to 'unlikely'." Tingting added, "If we handle it carefully, nothing will happen to us. We just need some people who won't and It reacts to the tools and is careful not to let the temperature of the pile rise."

"Well, it's not that difficult here," Fireball muttered. "This whole planet is a freezer."

"Mark said the same thing." Starlight nodded, "He asked me if I could use magic to move this pile of things. But this amount is too big!"

"So how big is this amount?" Fireball asked.

Starlight thought about it for a moment. "I'm going to get the whiteboard," she said finally. "I'm going to tell Mark where we're going. You all have to come here and do this together. Let's go."

Of course they didn't go there on foot. In the end, Mark drove them to the cave in the rover. Starlight, Dragonfly and a magic battery stayed in the car with Mark, while the other three could only hang on the luggage rack on the roof of the car. Starlight Glimmer felt that Mark came together this time to prevent them from getting into trouble again.

When a group of six people entered the cave where a huge amount of perchlorate was piled, the first thing Ting Ting said was: "Sorry. Okay, I don't dare to use a high-pressure water gun to flush this thing."

"It will probably take several weeks to remove them all," Spitfire exclaimed.

"If we had a small solid trailer, it would probably cost, uh, about fifty round trips." Berry counted her hooves and said thoughtfully.

"How did you know?"

"Drawing transport trucks is just one of the many strange jobs I had before I became a space horse," Berry replied. "I also hauled soil several times. This pile looks like it weighs about one hundred and fifty tons. You guys?" What do you think?"

Spitfire shrugged. "You're confusing me," she said. "The only thing I know about mounds is that they hurt when you hit them while flying."

"Okay, no matter what, four strong horses dragging a wagon - a four-wheeled cart - can easily move five tons of soil; and if the ground is flat and the cart is strong enough, it can drag a full eight tons. The only difficulty is Part of it is how to get the soil onto the car first.”

Everyone turned to look at Starlight - even Mark, even though he was just seeing the other horses copying the same movements.

"Maybe," she said, "if the magic is enough and I can hold on. But we don't have a trailer here."

"Hey, I have an idea," said Dragonfly, "Let Fireball try to eat this pile of stuff."

Five spacesuits staring at the stars seem to have found a more interesting target.

"Wait a minute, I'm serious!" Dragonfly said, "The dragon eats gems and takes a lava bath. They have fire resistance. It's okay to ask!"

"Little Bug, did you run away from the mental hospital?" Fireball asked, "Count how many dragons there are here."

"Uh, fireball, we all understand..."

"I asked you to count how many dragons there are."

The changeling sighed. "One. Only one dragon."

"That's right. A young, pitiful, and helpless dragon. It has only one stomach." Fireball pointed at the huge pile of yellow-white powder with his claws, "How much do you think I can swallow?! Even if the torch [1] It’s enough to feed him for a week!”

"It's just a suggestion." Dragonfly muttered, and kicked the mound of soil on the side that was not perchlorate.

Now Fireball was satisfied and turned back to look at the mound. "But you succeeded in arousing my curiosity," he said again, "Starlight, is there any way to get some of that stuff back?"

Starlight shook her head in her helmet so that her entire upper body swayed. "I wouldn't ask Mark about this," she said, "at least not in his current mood."

"Okay." The dragon stroked his chin through the helmet and said, "Then can you find a spoon from the spaceship and make me a magic air shield?" He gestured with his paws. Helmet and shoulder silhouette.

"Uh... I think it should be possible." Starlight said, "But if you do this, there won't be much left in the battery."

"Shouldn't we tell Mark first?" Berry asked bluntly.

"He will definitely not allow it." Fireball muttered.

"Don't you think we gave him a good reason to refuse?" Berry responded, "For example, the magic experiments we did the first two times?"

"Stop talking, how bad can it be?" Fireball asked. "At most, I feel sick to my stomach. As long as there is no arsenic or mercury in it, I won't die. Just give it a try."

"Let me put it another way." Berry still looked serious, "We should still tell Mark. Trust is mutual. If we want him to trust us again, we should trust him." She waved to Starlight. Waving her hoof, "Go tell him what we are going to do. Just tell the truth. If he doesn't deny it, we will do it, but we have to do it as quickly as possible." She said, "The magic can be left until tomorrow or later to start dealing with this pile. Use it when you need something.”

To Starlight's surprise, this time Mark didn't curse so loudly that the translation curse was confused like last time. In fact, when Starlight told him about the experiment, he didn't say a word. He just waved his hand and made a "no problem, continue" gesture in slow motion. But even so, Starlight was still sure that he was looking at Berry and not her when he gestured.

Starlight then concentrated on turning on the magic battery. The magic halo stretched and spread all the way back to the spacecraft for a long distance without environmental magic energy. I rummaged inside for a while. Then it locked onto the target and kept pulling; and even this act of summoning a teaspoon six miles away still almost caused Starlight to fall to the ground.

In a flash of light, a metal spoon from Amicitas' pantry fell onto Fireball Claw, who was wearing a space suit.

The dragon carefully held the spoon with one talon while reaching up with the other to undo the helmet's locking ring. Starlight used his power again, gathering a force field barrier and wrapping his entire upper body. Fireball unscrewed the locking ring and lifted the helmet off with his claws, placing it on the ground away from the pile of perchlorate.

At this moment Mark made a series of chaotic and uneasy gestures excitedly. Unfortunately (or maybe a good thing) none of the Amicitas crew could hear what he said or see the expression on his face.

The starlight supported the pressure caused by the rushing magic energy pouring out of the almost exhausted battery, and injected a steady stream of magic power into the force field composed of the semipermeable membrane; at the same time, she watched the fireball hovering next to the mound, Get as close as you can to the pile of perchlorate without being careful not to step on it. He leaned forward, quickly scooped up a spoonful of the perchlorate mixture, and walked carefully back to his helmet.

Then—sooner or later—he put a full spoonful into his mouth and swallowed it. After pondering for a while, he bent down to pick up the helmet, but stopped midway; he suddenly stood up straight again, raised his head and blew out a flame that passed through the protective bubble and reached the top of the cave, burning the crystal stone on the inner wall. .

Mark was shocked when he saw this and almost fainted.

After Fireball put on the helmet, Starlight immediately finished casting the spell and held on to the battery to keep from falling. "That's it for today," she said. "There may be some left in the battery, but I can't stand it anymore."

"How does it taste?" Dragonfly asked.

"It's quite spicy." Fireball said, "This thing can't be used as a staple food. But I think it will taste pretty good if you can eat it with these crystals."

Mission Log – Solar Day 38

During the Manhattan Project, nuclear physicists conducted multiple experiments in which two blocks of uranium were brought together to reach a critical mass for only a fraction of a second. They used this to measure the effect of a chain reaction. This experiment they call "playing with the dragon's tail."

But I'm probably the first human ever to see the effect of a real dragon doing the same thing.

But it did give me inspiration. Now it's up to the ponies to see if they all agree with this idea.

[Note:]

1. Torch: Torch, the previous Dragon King who first appeared in S06E05.